I have no presidential ambitions, says Malawi top activist Kapito

Malawi’s top consumer advocate and rights activist, John Katipo, says he has no presidential ambitions, saying he has taken up the cause of Malawians who are suffering.

The new fierce critic of the Joyce Banda administration, who also kept the Bingu wa Mutharika government on checks when he was head of state-funded Malawi Human Rights Commission, Kapito said he was not going into politics.

“I have said this more than enough that I have never had and will never have [political ambitions],” he said on Capital Radio’s Straight Talk programme aired on Tuesday.

“We are just championing a simple cause. To hold people accountable.”

Kapito: I am apolitica”

“The monopoly to question government is not in the political parties. I am asking Malawians to stand up and demand their rights, demand their economic rights.”

“I have never campaigned for any political position. I have never dreamt of doing so. My job is to speak on behalf of those people marginalised, vulnerable people that do not have platform to do so. I will continue doing so without anybody trying to complicate my life into politics.”

Kapito said he stands “for the truth” and that he has no fear.

He however blasted the Joyce Banda administration saying it has failed to provide protections to the people affected of the recent currency devaluation of about 50 percent.

Asked if he was going to form a political party, Kapito responded:“A political party is not something that I dream and I have never dreamed about it .”

He added: “I am a soldier and I will keep on fighting for the rights of the people. I will speak out for those and it doesn’t matter what platform I have.”

On what party he would vote in 2014 elections, Kapito said: “ I will need a party that can persuade me economically and socially that they are strong that their reason for coming into power is to make sure that the lives of ordinary Malawians are changed. “